As predicted, the finale of Weeds was excellent TV drama! Oh, wait — it’s a comedy? Well, ain’t that funny? Heck, I was too scared for Nancy to notice any humor.

The title, “If You Work For a Living, Why Do You Kill Yourself Working?” is the question of Nancy’s story arc. Remember those carefree days when Nancy was crossing the border, thinking she had drugs in her Prius, or crossing the border with an illegal immigrant and drugs in Guillermo’s truck, or waiting with Andy in the desert for a drug drop made by the Mexican police? She felt she owed her family for what she had put them through. She wanted to work to live and live well. When Guillermo asked her to be a retail store manager, she was disappointed. But it turns out by doing something less dangerous (retail) for even more money, she winds up doing something that’s equivalent to suicide because it was the right thing to do.

The day starts as Cesar tells Esteban that the agent gave Nancy’s name. Esteban knows it’s true, but declines to fully entertain the thought because he knows what it will mean. He tells Cesar that he can’t trust the word of a tortured man and tells him to keep looking for the real culprit. It’s not that love is blind; it’s more that love is hopeful.

Captain Till questions Nancy. Her legal counsel is Dean Hodes, a true indication that Nancy knew she had a solid deal with the DEA. The faux questioning session is interrupted when another agent summons Till. … continue reading

“Till We Meet Again” was fantastic TV. Wow. Was anyone else as speechless as I was by the end of the episode? I had trouble sleeping after seeing it!

Weeds has always found a decent balance between its no-apology, take no prisoners satirical style and its dramatic points but clearly, it is a comedy — until this episode. This was fine drama with a few laughs tossed in.

The primary plot point was the fallout of Nancy telling DEA Captain Till about the tunnel. She struck a deal asking for complete anonymity. I guess if Esteban wasn’t the mayor, the plan probably could have worked. But he is, and it didn’t.

Till agreed to keep any type of focus off of Nancy. He was getting a chance at Guillermo and seemed happy with that prize. He sent his own gay boyfriend, Agent Shlatter, into the maternity store acting as a married man looking at maternity clothes with his wife. Nancy casually tapped the door of the office to alert Shlatter to the room with the tunnel.

The following evening, when Sanjay is closing up the DEA enters the store, guns are drawn. This scene was juxtaposed with Nancy at Esteban’s having a sweet and intimate evening. Nancy sees pictures of Esteban’s daughters and asks about them. Esteban speaks with such sincere care and concern about them that it becomes harder to accept that he did know about the underage girl trafficking in the tunnel. He tells Nancy that such trafficking of girls will not occur again. As they start to get more intimate, Nancy asks Esteban if he loves her. He smiles.

At the maternity store, the DEA and Guillermo’s men are engaged in a gun battle, bullets everywhere. Guillermo and Ignacio, the man who has been guarding the tunnel in Nancy’s store, smartly flee down the tunnel and run to the Mexican side where the Mexican federal agents are waiting. There’s confusion as to whom has jurisdiction and where exactly Mexico begins and the U.S. ends. That scene ends with Guillermo and Ignacio in Mexican custody. … continue reading

In the episode “Head Cheese,” we finally come to find out Nancy’s line in the sand — child exploitation, semiautomatic weapons and non-leafy narcotics. (And all along I naively thought Doug and Andy were going to misuse the tunnel to operate their illegal coyote business. Silly me, that would be chump change.) Frankly, with all the stuff that’s actually being trafficked through the tunnel, Doug and Andy’s immigrants couldn’t even fit! It must feel like L.A. at rush hour down there.

Now, if I had to pick a cheese to represent Nancy since moving to Ren Mar, I’d have to pick Swiss cheese because the woman has been acting like she has holes in her head all season. But, viva la Ayuasca! The drug has caused some clarity.

The morning after the Ayuasca trip, Nancy tunes into Shane and the Groupies’ inane chatter over Pop-Tarts and starts asking questions about the coed slumber party. The Groupies quickly bail when Nancy gets closer to the truth that anatomy and biology were the cornerstones of the science project.

Nancy yells at Judah for leaving her alone to raise the kids. (I doubt Judah would have died if he had known that selling drugs was the Botwin future.) Anyway, Nancy in anger and frustration feebly spanks Shane with a newspaper when he tells her that her pretending-to-be-a-concerned-mother act is annoying. I’m guessing that Shane’s truth hurt Nancy way more than Nancy’s flimsy newspaper hurt his rear end. … continue reading

Whoa! What’s this show about again? Bad parenting? Cocaine? Pharmaceuticals? Interventions? Ayuasca? Under age sex trade? Under age sex, in general? Illegal immigration? Cheese? It seems that marijuana is soooo season one.

“The Love Circle Overlap” had me as dazed and confused as Nancy was after she drank Ayuasca for her headache. But there were several worthwhile it’s-about-time moments this week. At last, Isabelle orchestrated an intervention for Celia. I was beyond annoyed that Capt. Till let Celia’s sorry ass out of jail! I bet Isabelle felt the same.

Just like most interventions, Celia is in denial about her addiction. But unlike most interventions, Celia was handcuffed to her bedpost while she was passed out in a drug stupor because everyone knew that when Celia woke up she wouldn’t just sit there politely and listen to the truth about herself.

Celia justifies her use by blaming her ex-husband and her own kids for her misery. Aw, what a sweet mother of the year moment. Isabelle runs down all the hurtful and mean-spirited things Celia has done to her, but gives Celia a pass because at least she wasn’t a zombie, which is what she is now. Celia gives Isabelle a “whatev, beyotch” attitude, so Isabelle pulls out the big emotional gun: She’s going to tell Celia’s mother on her. Gasp! Who knew that some one actually birthed Celia Hodes? I thought she just organically developed from mutated post apocalyptic matter.

Oh, Andy locates MerMex and plans to have her meet up with downer Doug. Yay! When Doug thinks that he’s slipped away from the vigilante guy, Andy brings Maria and a few others across the border and merriment erupts. The only problem is that vigilante guy hadn’t left, and catches Doug being a big fat traitor. Andy and Doug plead with the guy not to rat them out to the Feds. The vigilante cuts them a deal: He’ll give them a running start from the border patrol but they have to leave behind one of the other immigrants. Andy and Doug toss some dude out of the van to be hunted like a wild animal. Good times. I wonder if word gets back that El Andy is El Sellout. … continue reading

What can I say? I love stoner humor — and I got plenty of it without actually having to inhale at the new Seth Rogen/James Franco flick, Pineapple Express, which opened to glowing critical acclaim and a healthy toke of dough at the box office. While I laughed myself into near seizures, I had to pause and think about how there hasn’t really been a female driven stoner comedy.

Why wasn’t there a female stoner comedy scorched into our collective memory; a film that could stand the test of stoner time? I could not for the life of me recollect ever seeing any female comedy duos like Rogen and Franco or Cheech and Chong. I would love to have a protagonist I can identify with and I have a feeling a lot of movie watching females feel the same way, too.

When we do see women in pot smoking flicks they are most likely looking down at the loser stoner boyfriend, like Katherine Heigl’s character in Knocked Up. You never see female stoners concocting hilarious plans to take over the world, save the object of their affection or feed their munchies like the dudes get to do when they are feeling White Castle. Sure, there’s Mary Louise Parker playing the MILF-weed queenpin on Showtime’s Weeds, but that’s television. (You have to give it up to Mary-Kate Olsen though for playing a great pot-smoking Christian bohemian on the show.)

Film is different, and I can’t help but wonder if there is a new kind of celluloid glass ceiling for women to conquer. We’re seeing more mainstream acceptance of a highly contentious sub-cultural pastime and I for one know plenty of communities of women that partake in a little puff the magic dragon. Do women want a little stoner humor to call their own? … continue reading

Why did I find that hokey ending, with Esteban silently embracing Nancy on her porch with lampshade cut outs of little sailboats creating silhouettes, so sweet? We all know the relationship won’t end well but I couldn’t help it!

In this episode, “Little Boats,” Nancy and Esteban’s ship takes on water, Shane’s little dinghy runs aground, Silas and Lisa’s ship sails, Doug needs a tug boat out of depression, and we see a man overboard which in this case was a woman overboard and that woman is Celia!

Is anyone finding the Celia as a drug addict story line amusing? Please, let me know because not only is drug addiction not all that funny to watch, worse than that, it’s not sexy! Sloppy, dopey Celia is grating on my very last nerve. If we have to watch her pathetically throw herself at folks she should be pathetically throwing herself at Nancy who is by far the hottest thing on the show! Do drugs make you blind as well as stupid?

As of late Nancy and Esteban spend time standing each other up and not in a good way but in a canceling dates on each other way, sort of like ships passing in the night. Their schedules and commitments, OK, mostly his, keep them in a carousel of disappointment. His latest promise is a boat trip to a romantic lobster dinner. The clock ticks on when the date will be canceled. … continue reading

In “I Am the Table,” we learn that Esteban believes he’s furniture, Andy believes he’s Moses, Nancy believes a mundane life would be scary, Celia believes pills are her salvation, Silas believes he’s one lucky dude, Shane believes he’s destined to be victimized by bullies, Isabelle believes her parents are worthless, Doug believes he’s going to see his MerMex, Maria, along some 2000 mile stretch of the U.S. Mexican border and I believe that very few of them would pass a psych evaluation. But hey, that’s what makes it so much fun!

Surprise! Nancy has taken a shine to Esteban. I’d prefer she take a shine to Celia but frankly, Celia is a drugged out pharma-pill taking mess at the moment — not sexy. So until Celia gets it together I guess Esteban is it. Sigh. Oh, wait? Has Nancy met Silas’s main cheese, I mean, squeeze? I bet they have a lot in common.

Oh yeah, the real story — so Esteban meets with Nancy and Guillermo and tells Guillermo it’s not OK for him to kill Nancy, which of course, is good news because a dead Nancy is not funny. Esteban then invites Nancy to his favorite restaurant for lunch and he’s promptly greeted with a hail of gunfire in an assassination attempt. Being the most macho of all macho men, he insists on finishing his meal with this huge pain in his neck. No, not Nancy. Shrapnel!

Esteban, using a placemat map of Mexico along with salt and pepper shakers on the table, names other drug families interested in killing him. Basically we learn though that he’s not salt or pepper nor is he the hot sauce bottle but he’s the actual table. I think it means he controls all of Mexico or at least he thinks he does. This type of power has to give our thrill seeking Nancy a major rush of squee! … continue reading

Shane? With nude pictures of his mama? Oh my. Well, that’ll teach me to go on vacation and miss Weeds for a week. I watched back-to-back episodes of the show this week and goodness gracious, I had to take a mega-swig of brain bleach after the “Yes, I Can” episode. I chugged the bleach like Thunderbird wine in a brown paper bag but you know how you can’t un-see something you’ve already seen? Yeah, well — it’s like that.

So, here’s a micro-recap of a mini-recap of the previous week’s episode. Basically it boiled down to a spanking (literally), a spanking (figuratively), some MILFy cheese and her new cheese whiz, a power play by Nancy, an Agrestic pot selling posse sighting, an illegal coyote start up company and charges being dropped against Celia. Did you get all that? Oh and it turns out that Capt. Till’s karaoke love was a planted seed that he’s gay! How did I not know this? It’s so obvious. (Now.)

In “Yes, I Can,” Nancy left tread marks on Guillermo’s back when she went over his head and asked the Man Upstairs, Esteban, for her own share of pot to sell to her client base. Of course, first she asked Guillermo for a cut of his supply but he said no so she flirted to the front of the line and asked directly. All it cost her was a robust over the knee spanking that she apparently really enjoyed because she smiled when she looked at Esteban’s handprints on her ass in the mirror. Nothing says “I dig a good spanking” than a coy smile.

While Nancy was making her return to power play, young Silas discovered a love for cheese or at least a lust for Rad’s mother, Lisa, who owns a cheese shop. Admittedly, the woman is as fine as an aged Roquefort, but maybe she’s a little too aged for 17-year-old Silas making the whole thing seem a little pungent like Limburger. OK, fine, I’ll give her a pass because she’s hot. Go Silas, it’s your birthday! Well, soon and you’ll be 18 and I can stop passing judgment. … continue reading

Nancy, Nancy, Nancy! Goodness that woman loves a thrill. That crater size hole in the maternity store floor was just too big, too long and too tempting to pretend it wasn’t there. So she climbed down, just like Alice in Wonderland, and walked the length of it to its end. But you know they say that curiosity killed the cat (or maybe it just spanked the cat).

This episode, “Excellent Treasures,” had plenty of them sprinkled through out. There was Bubbie’s dreck, I mean Bubbie’s excellent treasures, that Shane was selling off at her estate sale. He earned over eight grand selling knick-knacks and tables and picture frames and, and, uh, other junk that accumulated over Bubbie’s lifetime. See, it’s possible to make money without selling illegal contraband. You just have to play a role in killing your great-grandmother then sell her stuff. Simple.

Another treasure was the mother of Rad, the little neighborhood boy that’s been pestering the Botwins since their arrival. I haven’t really mentioned him before because, well, who cares! Well, now I do because his mother has a grown girl crush on young Silas.

Moving to Ren Mar has been a boon for Silas. He now has customers for his killer product (so what if it’s only the guys that tow cars), and he now has a MILF to call his own to go along with his killer MILF weed. (Yes, he’s growing MILF weed, ya’ll.) Isn’t his stuff a strain of the famous MILF weed product that Conrad developed when he was working exclusively with Nancy? … continue reading

Episode 5, “No Man is Pudding,” starts all warm and cuddly with Celia begging for her life while gnawing on a gun in front of Nancy, Guillermo and the gang after being caught staking out Guillermo’s place. The feel-goodness got worse when Nancy, who apparently has watched a few too many Scorsese films, hijacks Guillermo’s gun and pistol-whips Celia so hard she knocks Celia’s tooth out! (Dang. There went my hope for a sexy Nancy-Celia reunion.)

Nancy was actually trying to front to Guillermo that she knew Celia was outside and that she was going to teach Celia a lesson for not following Nancy’s instructions. Poor Celia just can’t seem to catch a break this season. Where’s the woman’s moxie? Is it on vacation with Heylia and Conrad?

Nancy manages to keep Celia from getting killed at Guillermo’s but it’s not clear if it’s because Nancy would rather kill Celia herself. Guillermo’s annoyed by it all but he tells Nancy to meet him at a new outlet mall later in the day.

Andy left the rendezvous spot with a group of illegal immigrants heading for Iowa. Iowa? Yeah, Iowa. The writers made sure that the coyote leading the group suffered from illegal immigrant coyote stereotype syndrome. This syndrome made him rather unpleasant to everyone regardless of gender and it placed him in probable sexual assault perpetrator stratosphere regarding the lone female immigrant.

Andy befriends the woman, who enjoys making character marzipan, and he also befriends one man who has been promised that there is excellent ocean fishing in Iowa. Both new friends complain about the cost and the treatment of the coyote.

As the immigrants begin to board a delivery truck carrying large cases of pudding, they’re told that if they eat or ruin the pudding they’d be dead. As Andy tries to board the truck he has to pay. He only has six bucks so the coyote takes Andy’s prized belt buckle, too. … continue reading

I’m sure I’m telling you nothing new by saying that powerful, strong female characters are a rarity on television these days. But (thankfully) we do have a few of them. They’re detectives, doctors, attorneys, and heck, they’re even pot-dealing soccer moms.

But regardless, they’re scarcer than they should be, and what’s worse — their characters are often overly flawed. (See the linster’s post about In Plain Sight for a ridiculously spot-on example.) Additionally, their characters are usually either sexless (see: Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU) or their storylines are based almost solely on their love-life (see: Meredith Grey on Grey’s Anatomy).

These issues, among others (see: far too few queer women on TV), are concerns that we’re all too familiar with at AfterEllen.com; the problem seems to lie in the fact that no one else recognizes it. Or, at the very least, no one with the power to do so does anything about it.

So, the other day, when I stumbled upon an article by Stuart Levine on MSNBC titled, “Powerful TV women must face backlash,” I smiled a little bit on the inside. I couldn’t help but think — for a fleeting moment — that things are turning around. After all, if you’ve glanced through Malinda Lo’s "TCA Diaries" lately, you’ve read all about some fantastic shows currently on TV that accurately and responsibly portray strong female leads. It was in this vein that I gleefully opened the article, ready for a poignant look at women in television. What I got, quite simply, was a big pile of nothingness. … continue reading

Last week I wondered why we had to meet Bubbie at all given her short stay and lack of audible lines, but this week I learned that we met her so that Nancy could kill her so that Lenny could extort money from Nancy putting Nancy in even more dramatic jeopardy. Cool, now we are getting somewhere!

The first three weeks made me feel like I was under the influence of Silas’ killer product because the story arc seemed to be moving sooo verrry slooowly. But this week’s episode, “The Three Coolers,” towed the stories into another gear much like the truck that towed Andy’s van (with Silas’s killer product growing inside) for parking without a permit in front of Bubbie’s house. I mean, Lenny’s house. (RIP Bubbie.)

So, the Botwins, ever the classy bunch, observed seven days of shiva in remembrance of Bubbie. Nancy and the kids spent more time sitting honoring Bubbie’s timely death by Tempur-Pedic pillow than they have collectively spent in Bubbie’s presence over their life times.

Lenny, with no signs of proof to the other Botwins or the viewing audience, stakes claim as the sole beneficiary of Bubbie’s belongings. It seems the only good Bubbie is a dead Bubbie.

Upon learning of the death — good news travels fast in the real estate business — several real estate agents come by to offer their respects and business cards. One actually sits shiva hoping to get the upper hand on repping the property. But a man’s upper hand is not what Lenny is interested in, and Lenny chooses an exceptionally endowed blonde female agent (not because blondes have more fun but because exceptionally endowed ones have better assets to negotiate closing costs.) … continue reading

Have you ever wondered which TV shows came thisclose to getting an Emmy nomination and never did? No? Well regardless, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (aka the people that give out the Emmy awards) are now letting us know who those losers shows will be.

Recently they announced the official Top Ten Finalists for both Outstanding Drama Series as well as Outstanding Comedy Series — with no official mention of the actors or actresses, supporting or otherwise, that may be in contention. Who knew Emmy could be such a tease?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Academy released this information: “In an unprecedented move designed to head off the kind of cyberspace leaks that have played havoc with the nomination process the past two years.”

Really? There has been internet “havoc”? And by "havoc" do they mean public speculation? Forums on discussion? Emmy buzz? I thought these were all good things that would inevitably lead to getting people to actually sit through three hours of Emmy award distribution. Clearly I know nothing about award shows.

Here is a peak at the nominees that may get nominated, or may not get nominated (in case you are a "glass half-empty" kind of person.)

Top 10 Comedy Series Semi-Finalists

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight of the Conchords
The Office
Pushing Daisies
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Weeds

Out of this list, only five will go on the hopes of becoming America’s Next Top Emmy Finalist — or something like that. If I had to guess who those lucky final five would be, my money would be on 30 Rock (because Tina Fey is amazing and deserves all the Emmy gold they can dish out), The Office, Weeds, Ugly Betty and Two and Half Men (because they always seem to nominate this show. Does anyone out there watch this? Seriously, I’m asking.) … continue reading

The new openings are a fun and amusing concept. There’s now a different graphic each week tipping off the main plot point of the episode.

Last week’s graphic had a big green overhead highway sign with Weeds spelled across with white arrows pointing down to the lanes of the highway at the California/Mexico border and a second highway sign saying "Created by Jenji Kohan." Then we spent the episode waiting with Nancy in a two hour line concerned about her making it back across the border with drugs sealed in her car. OK, so they weren’t sealed in her car but she thought they were!

The opening of this week’s episode, “The Whole Blah Damn Thing,” had the Weeds and created by graphic spelled out using the status lines on Bubbie’s heart monitor contraption thingy. Then we spent the episode wondering when and if the Botwins were going to honor Bubbie’s “kill me” request.

Shane and Andy wanted to honor Bubbie’s wishes due to Shane’s feelings that a person has a right to self-determination and to Andy simply knowing what a fire ball Bubbie was and that this wasn’t Bubbie anymore and that she knew it, too. Nancy, of course, was sort of ambivalent. (I know, Nancy ambivalent? Surprise!)

Silas at first thought it was unethical and just plain old murder until Andy in a moment of clarity, for Andy at least, explained that life was a series of blah blah blah and then you get to the end of your life and realize the whole blah thing was nothing more than a series of blahs. For whatever reason this explanation resonated with Silas. Is there anyone out there that can explain this whole blah thing better because it didn’t really resonate with me. Oh and Lenny was absolutely against the idea of pulling the plug on Bubbie not because he didn’t want to but because it was his mother. … continue reading

I dug this episode of Weeds but goodness it made me nervous! Nancy is breaking the law all over the North American continent, ya’ll. The girl has gone international. I’m watching the season cold with no knowledge of spoilers but I’m thinking this trafficking thing can’t end well.

This episode, “Lady’s a Charm,” highlights the charms of Nancy, who is now Guillermo’s drug smuggling ace-in-the-hole Blanca. Blanca, for the Spanish language challenged, means white en Espanol. Isn’t that clever? No, not really? Oh.

Guillermo breaks Nancy’s taillight and plans to send her to Tijuana to get it fixed. He also tells her to bring back prescription inhalers from a pharmacy while she’s down there. For her efforts she’ll get ten grand and oodles of trust from Guillermo. He gives her a bobble-head Jesus for her dashboard to keep her safe then sends her on her way.

Nancy finds the specific body shop and is told to come back in an hour. She knows that they’re sealing drugs somewhere into her car but as they say ignorance is bliss and apparently Nancy’s quite blissful to even be involved in all this mess. But she’s caliente so I’ll give her a pass.

To cross back into the States she has to sit in a two-hour line. Now that’s some awful drug traffic right there! She gets thirsty and buys an iced coffee from a roving vendor. Word of caution, avoid drinking fluids while waiting in a two-hour line at the border. There are no bathrooms. Oh well, when you have to go you have to go. Nancy wiggles into the backseat and goes in the same cup from which she just drank her iced coffee. Lovely. Not. Fine, I laughed.

Shane calls to tell Nancy that Isabelle told him Celia’s in jail and has named Nancy as the grow-house kingpin. Bet that’s not great news to hear while sitting in line at the border with drugs sealed in your car. … continue reading